About Ashwini

ASHWINI RAMASWAMY has spent more than 30 years studying Bharatanatyam from award-winning artists Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy (her mother and sister), and their guru, the legendary Padma Bhushan Smt. Alarmél Valli of Chennai, India, since 2011. Her upbringing in both India and the US has encouraged a hybrid aesthetic and vision, and her choreography has been heralded by the New York Times for ”creating space, not just for more generations but more ways of thinking” and listed among the ”Best of the Year” in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Star Tribune, and Minnpost. Ramaswamy is committed to maintaining the rigor, physicality, humanity, and authenticity embedded in her Bharatanatyam lineage, while forming a personal vision for collaborative, multidisciplinary performance experiences.

As a founding member of Ragamala Dance Company, she has toured extensively, performing throughout the US and in Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, the UK, and India, highlighted by performances at the Joyce Theater and Lincoln Center Out of Doors (New York), the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), The Soraya (Los Angeles), Harris Theater (Chicago), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Bali Arts Festival, National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai, India), and Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India).

The artist’s awards and honors include a Creative Capital Award, McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowships for Dance and Choreography, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, National Dance Project grants for production, touring, and engagement, a MAP Fund grant, and support from USArtists International, National Performance Network (NPN); Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the South Asian Arts Resiliency Fund.

Her work has been commissioned by Northrop, the Liquid Music Series, Joyce Theater, Gogue Center, American Dance Platform, Macalester College, Great Northern Festival, and Santa Monica College; and created in residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, UNC Chapel Hill, Kohler Arts Center, the National Center for Choreography a the University of Akron, the Bogliasco Foundation (Bogliasco, Italy), and the Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France).

As a soloist, she has performed at the Just Festival (Edinburgh), the Ritz Theater (Minneapolis), Northrop (Minneapolis), Carleton College (Northfield, MN), the Drive East Festival, and Erasing Borders Festival (New York). Her ensemble choreographic work has been presented by Augsburg College, the Red Eye Theater, Macalester College, The O’Shaughnessy, and the Cowles Center (Minneapolis/St. Paul); Triskelion Arts, Joyce Theater, and Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York), The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard, MA), Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA), Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (Scottsdale, AZ), UAlbany Presents (Albany, NY), Just Festival (Edinburgh), Modlin Center for the Arts (Richmond, VA), Charles B. Wang Center (Stonybrook, NY), BroadStage (Santa Monica, CA), and Bates Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME), among others.